Dispute over woman leads to Brockton slaying

Saturday morning outside the yellow multi-family house at 55 Prospect St. in Brockton was a makeshift memorial. Balloons, prayer candles and flowers sat next to a wooden post with a photo of a smiling Jacinto Correia tied on with string. Correia died Friday after being stabbed in a fight.

Sixteen-year-old Gilda Correia said goodbye to her father when she left for school Friday morning.

She didn't know it would be the last time she would ever speak to him.

Jacinto Correia, 49, was stabbed to death in Brockton that afternoon in what his family says was an argument over a woman.

The murder was the city's first in 2014. A man who was in the house with Correia was charged with stabbing him multiple times.

There was a makeshift memorial Saturday outside the yellow, multi-family house at 55 Prospect St., where the stabbing took place. Prayer candles, balloons and flowers were set next to a wooden post to which a photo of a smiling Correia had been tied with string.

Correia's cousin Vasco DeAndre of Brockton was at the memorial with his mother and son. He bent down to prop up some of the flowers that had slumped forward from the wind. His mother, Ana Harrington, 68, was weeping aloud as she looked at Correia's photo.

DeAndre said he saw several police cruisers on the street Friday but didn't know why they were there.

“I drove by here maybe 10 times. I saw the cruisers here. I thought it was probably a drug deal gone bad or something. I didn't pay no mind to it,” DeAndre, 48, said. “Then his daughter, 16 years old, called me and said, 'My father had a fight. He's in the hospital.' And she called me 15 minutes later and she said he's dead.”

“We lost a good person,” DeAndre said. “He was a very nice guy, very funny guy. He loved dancing a lot.”

Joao Fillipe DeAndrade, 50, of Brockton was charged with murder in connection with the stabbing death of Correia.

Bridget Norton Middleton, the spokeswoman for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, said Correia, DeAndrade and a third person had spent much of Friday together at the apartment and, at some point, a disagreement between Correia and DeAndrade ensued during which DeAndrade stabbed Correia multiple times in the legs. Middleton said Correia was taken to an area hospital about 3:30 p.m. where he was later pronounced dead.

DeAndre said the men were friends and that the fight began over a woman.

“The thing happened because of a girl. He and the other guy that stabbed him were seeing the same girl,” DeAndre said.

Down the street, family and friends gathered Saturday in a house on Farrington Street. Gilda Correia was sobbing uncontrollably, her cousin Laurentyna Goncalves holding her up to keep Gilda from collapsing to the floor.

“He was a very good person,” Gilda Correia said quietly through tears.

Jacinto Correia came to Brockton from Cape Verde in 2011. He leaves behind his wife, Adriana Correia; his daughter, Gilda Correia; and five other children who live in Cape Verde. DeAndre said Jacinto Correia was in the process of petitioning for the rest of his family to come to the United States.

Page 2 of 2 - Those close to him say Jacino Correia loved to listen to Cape Verdean music, to dance and to socialize with family and friends.

His family is working with Funerarias Multi-Culturel on Court Street in Brockton to make funeral arrangements.

Middleton said Joao DeAndrade is scheduled to be in Brockton District Court on Monday to be advised for the charge against him and enter a plea.

Vasco DeAndre said Gilda Correia, who goes to Brockton High School, had been living with his family for the past six months and would continue to stay with them at their house in Brockton.